Blue Moth
by ragnarok23456
Summary: Fifteen years before the Battle of Yavin, a daring pilot (Antoc Merrick) fights for his people, and a brave young senator (Mon Mothma) builds a rebellion.
1. Chapter 1

Three important things happened in 46 BBY.

First, Padmé Naberrie - better known as Padmé Amidala, Queen of Naboo - was born.

Second, in the 'civilized center' of the galaxy, on the green and peaceful planet of Chandrila, a girl named Mon Mothma was born.

And third, on the edge of colonized space, on the windswept planet of Virujansi, a boy named Antoc Merrick was born.

At the time Antoc was born, Virujansi was - and had, for a millenium, been - a fiercely caste-based society. The ruling caste, the _Virujiran_ , lived in fantastic palaces, thousands of meters above the surface, you know the drill. The merchant class, the _Virujneran_ , moved goods between the farms on the surface and the cities above. And the farming class, the _Virujoran_ , lived on the surface and tried to eke out an agricultural existence, while dodging the giant borecrawler worms that burrowed tunnels every which way through the planet.

Below these three castes - below the _Virujiran_ , the _Virujneran_ , and the _Virujoran_ , were the _Saytikaan_ \- the lowest of the low. The untouchables. It's this caste to which Antoc and his family belonged. Like every other _Saytik_ , Antoc was destined to live and die below the surface, eking out a meager salary by flying tiny, rickety spacecraft through the borecrawler tunnels and collecting valuable mineral deposits (used in the manufacturing of photo torpedoes) that the worms left in their wake. And for much of his childhood and early adulthood, this is exactly what Antoc did, along with his dearest friend, a _Virujoran_ human male named Garven Dreis. It was dangerous work, and if history was any precedent, neither Antoc nor Garven could reasonably expect to live much beyond the age of thirty.

But as it happened, both Antoc and Garven were pretty _good_ at piloting rickety ships through perilous terrain. They did with their buckets of bolts what professional pilots in galaxy-class fighters could only dream of. And as luck would have it, one particularly fine day in the summer of 26 BBY, they were doing crazy maneuvers in the borecrawler tunnels when they were discovered by Iora Thuran, a squadron commander from Virujansi's elite Rarefied Air Cavalry.

Squadron commander Thuran, a veteran pilot herself, recognized their skill, and she took Antoc and Garven under her wing. Thuran also - importantly - forged the necessary papers to pass both Antoc and Garven off as merchant-class Virujneran. (At the time, only Virujiran and a select few Virujneran were allowed to join the military. For a lowborn Virujoran or Saytikaan to masquerade as upper-caste would, if discovered, have been punishable by a court-martial, followed by exile - or even execution.)

Over the next four years, the two young men steadily rose through the ranks, working together, and flying as a team. Things were going well for them until the winter of 22 BBY, nearly four years later. That year, Thuran and four other squad members were killed in a reactor explosion on a nearby orbital station. It was only after Thuran's death, when her belongings were being prepared to go back to her family, that Cavalry administrators discovered evidence of Antoc and Garven's true castes.

A court-martial was convened, and representatives were appointed to defend the two young men. The proceedings went on for six weeks - and things were looking grim. On the last day, the attorneys for Antoc and Garven were preparing their final arguments when a Cavalry courier burst into the room with news that brought everything to a screeching halt: the Clone Wars had begun.

Meanwhile, halfway across the galaxy, a young girl named Mon Mothma was the eldest of six children of a prominent political family on the peaceful planet of Chandrila. Her father, Mon Athamed, was an arbiter for the Republic; her mother, Mon Therama, was governor of Chandrila's largest province. Mothma herself was an earnest, quiet child, and she largely stayed far from the political intrigues in which her parents were involved. At the age of ten, she acquired what would become a lifelong interest in physics. The next year, at the age of eleven, she built her first miniature (but fully functional) hyperdrive for a small, unmanned vehicle. At the age of twelve, she took a detour into the world of geology, and then spent her free time over the next two years completing a geological survey of her province that was later published.

At the age of fifteen, events transpired that would change the course of young Mothma's life. One summer evening, her mother called the family together to make a jarring announcement - the Mon clan was penniless. Mothma's father Athamed had squandered the family fortune on a series of ill-advised speculative schemes, all without the knowledge of the rest of the clan. Most of the family's debts were to the Suranas - the ruling family of a neighboring province. And if the Mon family didn't find some way to repay those debts within the year, they would be forced to cede their land to the state, forfeit their titles, and move off-world.

The news came as a tremendous shock to Mothma, and she spent several months holed up in her room, coming to terms with what she had learned. Then, one fall day, she gathered her surveying equipment and a large satchel, buttoned herself up in a warm coat, and walked right out of the house, without saying a word to anyone.

The next morning, the Mon family awoke to find Mothma missing. Not knowing where she had gone, they assumed the worst. Two days after her disappearance, Mon Mothma's parents - with some help from neighbors and friends - pulled together a search party and set out to find young Mothma.

No sooner had the search party stepped out of the house than they spotted her - Mothma, emerging from the morning fog and walking briskly back toward the house. She walked right past them - past the search party, past her father and mother - into the house. Once inside - still without saying a single word - she produced a stack of papers from her surveyor's bag, and left it on the kitchen table. Then she turned, and walked back out of the house. Her family would not see her again for another four years.

During that time, "Mothma's Midnight Walk", as it was called, became the stuff of legend. In the forty-eight hours that Mothma had been gone, she had walked to the nearest town, traded her hyperdrive prototype to a passing merchant in exchange for use of a speeder, and drove that speeder more than five hundred miles - across treacherous terrain - to the house of the Suranas. Once there, Mothma revealed to the Suranas a discovery she had made years before - a valuable vein of Rubindum, a mineral required for hyperdrive construction, deep beneath the lands owned by her family. She offered the Suranas full rights to exploit the mineral deposits - in exchange for complete forgiveness of her father's debts.

At first, the Suranas laughed. They told Mothma that they could simply wait for the Mons to go bankrupt and buy the land from the state after the family's inevitable move off-world. But Mothma didn't bat an eye or miss a beat. She coolly explained that not only would that be impossible (because by then she would have told the state of the Rubindum vein, thus making the land far too expensive for the Suranas to buy outright), but also inadvisable (because she had spent the last four months of her solitude accumulating enough blackmail material on the Suranas to tear that family down to nothing, if they didn't do exactly as she asked).

The Suranas found that they had no choice but to accept Mothma's offer.

So it was that no-one was surprised when, four years later, in 27 BBY, Mothma was elected Senator of Chandrila, at the remarkably young age of nineteen. She had served for nearly five years, she had won re-election twice, and she was steadily accumulating control of all of Chandrila's most important industries and commercial sectors - when the Clone Wars broke out in 22 BBY.


	2. Chapter 2

Throughout the Clone Wars, Mon Mothma worked tirelessly to build a fledgling opposition to Palpatine and to forge alliances with like-minded Senators, including Padmé Amidala of Naboo and Bail Organa of Alderaan, who were two of her very closest friends. During the war, Mothma worked with Bail to identify nearly 2,000 other sympathetic Senators who disagreed with Palpatine's power grab - though of course this was a meager number, compared to the _24,000_ total Senators in the Galactic Senate at the time. Later, when the Clone Wars ended in 19 BBY, Mothma, Padmé and Bail already had efforts underway to develop the secret network of cells that would eventually become the Rebel Alliance.

Antoc Merrick, on the other hand, was not such an early adopter of the Rebel cause. After a near-death experience in his court-martial on Virujansi, Antoc and his friend Garven Dreis served throughout the Clone Wars in the Virujansan Air Cavalry. They acquitted themselves with honor during challenging times, and, by the end of the war, all thought of a court-martial was forgotten.

But between 19 and 18 BBY, in the wake of the war, things started to change on Virujansi. And as the Galactic Republic became the Galactic Empire, a new Imperial Governor was installed on the planet - and Antoc and Garven, as the heroes of the war, were seen as ideal figures to lead the Imperial Navy on Virujansi and to legitimize the Empire's presence there.

Luckily for us (and for the Rebellion), neither Antoc nor Garven was completely sold on the idea. The two men held off on responding to the Imperial Governor - and in the spring of 18 BBY, they were visited, in secret, by two rebellious Senators: Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma.

It's worth remembering that at this point, both Bail and Mothma were still in mourning for the loss of their dear friend Padme, who had died in childbirth only two months before; and Bail had only just returned from Alderaan, where his wife Breha was caring for Padme's infant daughter Leia. At the same time, both Mothma and Bail were leading the Rebellion by night while still holding down their "day jobs" as members of the Imperial Senate - a dual life that Mothma would lead until 2 BBY, when her true allegiance would be discovered and she would be banished from the Empire.

But that's a story for another day.

At this first meeting, as far as Mothma and Antoc were concerned, neither one was at all impressed with the other.

Antoc saw Mothma as naive and unprepared - a political savant, perhaps, but a military amateur, with nothing to offer but risk. He was also somewhat underwhelmed with her arguments; he saw her "pitch" as a misguided attempt to appeal to his patriotism as a Virujansan - a failure to realize that he (as an untouchable) had no particular love for most of his countrymen (except, of course, his own squadmates).

Mothma, for her part, saw Antoc as small-minded and unimaginative - unable to see the danger posed by the Empire not just to Virujansi, but to planets all across the galaxy. She was also disappointed in what she saw as his lack of principles. Considering the experience of his caste (as he had so colorfully described it during their first meeting), she would have expected him to have greater sympathy for the plight of oppressed peoples. But instead, as she saw it, Antoc only seemed to be looking out for himself.

While Mothma and Antoc duked it out, Garven and Bail were, separately, having discussions of their own. Garven asked a series of hard questions about the Alliance's plans to obtain arms, ships, and a base; Bail responded by outlining the year-long preparedness plan that he and Mothma had painstakingly created. Bail showed Garven images of the newly-created Alliance base on Yavin 4, and regaled him with stories of the Alliance's modest but promising success in 'liberating' a variety of U-Wing and X-Wing starfighters from an Incom Corporation station in orbit around a nearby moon. But Garven was only truly sold when Mothma, having come to understand Garven and Antoc's "squadmates above all" ethos, assured Garven that his entire squadron - pilots and families - would be welcome and safe on Yavin 4.

Once Garven agreed, so did Antoc. But that didn't mean he had to like it.

Garven, Antoc, and all the willing members of the Rarefied Air Cavalry's Blue and Red Squadrons traveled to Yavin 4 with Mothma and Bail, and set to work establishing and strengthening what would become the Rebel Alliance Starfighter Corps. In the early years, Mothma and Bail (both members of the Alliance Council) were busy with the work of forging alliances, and Garven and Antoc were occupied with training and skirmishes - yet still, Antoc and Mothma seemed to fight constantly. Antoc saw Mothma as an obstacle in his path, and was particularly incensed that she had, to date, prevented Rebel pilots from gaining additional seats on the Alliance Council (wihch was true). Mothma was wary of what she saw as a power-grab on Antoc's part, and saw his increasing demands for resources as a thorn in her side. Antoc frequently accused Mothma of being an "out-of-touch, imperious, cowardly chickenshit with no concept of how to run a military", while Mothma would retort that Antoc was a "single-minded, thick-skulled, morally vacant mouth-breather with no sense of subtlety or strategy".

In the early years on Yavin 4, it started to seem like the two would never get along.

Then, in 15 BBY - three years after Antoc arrived on Yavin 4 - Antoc Merrick received some unwelcome news.


	3. Chapter 3

After a smattering of uprisings on Antoc's home planet, the Empire was tightening grip on the now-rebellious people of Virujansi. Members of the top three castes were being sent to labor camps - and members of his caste, the _Saytikaan_ , were being slaughtered outright. Any Cavalrymen and women that the Empire could find were being captured, until such a time as they could be executed, all at once, and publicly. The Empire intended to make an example of Virujansi - to not only subjugate the planet, but to establish a forward operating base there, from which to launch further attacks on the Rebels.

By some miracle of fate, the Merrick family had escaped the first "culling" and had gone into hiding with the Dreis clan - but Imperial forces were swarming the planet, and they likely didn't have long. Days. Maybe hours.

At this time, Antoc _was_ the most senior pilot in the Alliance air corps, but he was _not_ yet a member of the Alliance Council - so when he went to the Council to plead for resources and authorization to free Virujansi, he went alone - with no friends, no help, and no hope. He tried to convince the Council - which included Mothma - that a mission to Virujansi was not only in his interest, but also in the interest of the Alliance. After all, he explained, there was real value in preventing the Empire from getting its first foothold in the resource-rich Inner Rim - so close to the Outer Rim, and to Yavin 4.

The Council went into secret deliberations to which Antoc was not invited. Behind closed doors, the Council members debated Antoc's proposal. "Such a mission would be too expensive and too dangerous", said one Council member. "The threat simply isn't sufficient to merit the risk," said another. On the third day of debate, near midnight, Antoc was informed only that the proposal had been rejected by all of the Council's twelve members. The Council would neither fund nor authorize his mission.

Antoc was _livid_. He stormed back to his quarters and began to pack. If he couldn't take his squadron, he would take an X-Wing and go himself. He was nearly done packing, when he heard a knock at the door: quiet, but insistent. The first two times, he ignored it. The third time, Antoc opened the door - and was surprised to see a young courier standing there. And because he was thrown off-guard, it took him a split-second longer than it would have, otherwise, for him to close the door. It was just long enough for the courier to wedge her foot into the open space, and to shove a small blue credit chip at him.

When he asked the courier what it was, she told him, simply, that his mission had been financed after all, that he should take both Blue and Red Squadrons, and that it was imperative that they leave in the next forty-five minutes, or they wouldn't get another chance. He asked her whether this was some kind of joke. The courier responded that it was not. Then the courier told Antoc that she had one more message to relay: if he came back alive without having secured Virujansi as a Rebel stronghold, he would be out in the cold - that the Rebellion would never forgive him, and would never take him back. When Antoc asked who had sent her, the courier shrugged, turned, and disappeared into the night.

Antoc didn't try to follow her; instead, he woke Garven, rallied the Virujansans from both squadrons, and departed Yavin 4 only twenty minutes after his conversation with the courier. He and his fellow pilots took the jump to Virujansi, to find the Imperial Governor poised to stage a showy execution of thousands of Cavalrymen and women. And in a spectacular battle that lasted more than 36 hours, Antoc, Garven, and their fellow pilots drove the Imperial Navy from Virujansi and freed the thousand of imprisoned Cavalrymen and women.

Antoc and Garven proceeded to negotiate the terms by which Virujansi would become a Rebel outpost. Notably, they struck a deal whereby the caste system would be overhauled: no more untouchable classes, and no more young Virujansans dying in the borecrawler tunnels. In exchange, the Rebels would provide Virujansan with ongoing protection and a team of droids who could take over the mining work in the tunnels. Antoc was also able to use the money that the courier had given him to pay for much-needed repairs and to rehabilitate the grounded Cavalry fleet. The deal was a good one, and gave the Alliance a much-needed partner in the Outer Rim.

After a week, Antoc received a short message from Bail Organa, sent at top priority: "Return to Yavin." He and Garven hastily wrapped up talks with the Virujansan government, and made best possible speed to Yavin 4.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment Antoc stepped out of his X-Wing and onto the rainy tarmac at Yavin 4, he was approached by a frantic Bail Organa. Bail told Antoc that Mon Mothma had returned to Chandrila, and was on trial - in absentia - for treason. If convicted, she would be stripped of her rank in the Council and exiled from the Alliance completely.

Antoc scoffed. Why should he care about the fate of a woman who had only made his life miserable from the moment he set foot on Yavin? Good riddance, he said, to bad rubbish. The Council would do better without her. And maybe now this was the time for a pilot to take her empty seat. It was time for a change, anyway.

Bail seized Antoc by the arm and stopped him. With a savage sort of anger, he asked how Antoc could be so unfeeling, after everything Mothma had done for him. Antoc laughed at the idea. Done for him? All Mothma had ever done was -

Bail stopped him, and practically dragged Antoc to his quarters, where he pulled up the contents of a data file. The proof was all there: it had been _Mothma_ who had, in secret, financed Antoc's mission to Virujansi. Bail proceeded to show Antoc records showing that Mothma had sold her own family lands on Chandrila - all she had left, everything except her family's historic home - and had laundered the money through a series of brokers so that she could provide Antoc enough money to make the mission a success. Two days later, when it was clear that the two squadron leaders and many of their men had really disappeared, there was an inquiry - and rather than waste scarce Alliance resources on an investigation, Mothma confessed immediately.

Antoc was stunned. If that was true, why had the Council vote against his proposal been unanimous? Bail explained that once Mothma had realized she couldn't persuade the others, Mothma had opted to vote with the group on Antoc's plan so that she would have a little leverage on other voting matters before the Council. Her vote would only have been symbolic, anyway - and by the third day of debate, she had accomplished what she wanted - delaying the Council long enough to secure a deal whereby she would sell the Mon family lands. Then, an hour after Antoc, Garven, and the pilots left for Virujansi, she left Yavin for Chandrila.

After a moment of surprised silence, Antoc asked Bail why _he_ hadn't supported Antoc's plan - and Bail, unembarrassed, responded simply that he hadn't had any confidence that Antoc, Garven and the others could pull it off. Noone had.

Well - noone except Mothma.

Bail then asked Antoc what had happened on Virujansi - what the outcome had been, and what they had achieved. Antoc promised to tell all - if Bail would find a way for Antoc to take the stand and testify in Mothma's defense. Bail gravely told Antoc that it already was too late - that the testimony was over - that only the closing statements remained - and that it looked very much like Mothma would be exiled. Antoc responded that, in that case, he would be glad to give the closing statement himself.

And he did.


	5. Chapter 5

At Mothma's trial, Antoc paintakingly explained to the Council jury exactly what had taken place, from the moment he left Yavin 4, through the spectacular battle over Virujansi, to the moment that he and Garven had convinced the Virujansan government to establish a new (and highly valuable) Rebel outpost on the planet. He explained the military value of that outpost, and described at length the many Imperial ships that had been seized and the Imperial officers who had been captured for questioning, and the valuable intelligence that he hoped to extract from them.

Then, in what would be later described as one of the most firebrand and most persuasive speeches ever to be given before the Council, Antoc upbraided the Council members for their lack of bravery, their lack of imagination, and their lack of commitment to the Rebel cause. Mothma had done what none of them would: she had put her own resources on the line and taken a great risk - not only for the Alliance, but for her pilots. And as it happened, the risks she had taken had paid off for the Alliance, ten times over.

The Council jury went into deliberations - but Antoc didn't wait for their decision. He jumped in his X-Wing and made best speed to Chandrila.

Once he arrived, Antoc located the Mon family manor, and landed there. He was informed by one of Mothma's relatives that she had taken her surveying equipment and walked west, across windswept wheat fields and toward a wide river that cut through the heart of what had once been Mon family land. They explained that she wanted to walk the perimeter of the land one more time before ownership was handed over the next day.

Antoc found Mothma sitting on the edge of a steep, grassy cliff, overlooking a deep ravine and the wide river below. Her surveying equipment was arrayed around her, but she wasn't using it; rather, she was staring out into the distance, toward the setting sun, her expression sad. Antoc dropped to the ground next to her, and for what might have been an hour, neither one said anything. Then, finally, he asked her: why had she done it?

Mothma continued to stare at the horizon; she had done it, she said, because she believed in Antoc and his pilots. He had been right - some things were worth taking a chance on - and in any case, the Alliance was never going to make any progress against the Empire without taking a few of those chances. Then, Mothma's voice grew a little quieter. She told him that, whether or not _they_ got along, Antoc was critically important to the Alliance. And if Mothma's family lands were the price of keeping him and Blue Squadron in the Alliance, it was really a very reasonable price to pay.

Mothma then turned and looked at Antoc, for the first time since he had arrived. She assured him that she didn't regret her choice. Mothma then asked Antoc what had happened on Virujansi. He proceeded to tell the entire story, and as he did, she began to smile. Once he was done, there was a long moment before she responded. "So it was worth it," she said. "It was," he replied. And then, at the first Chandrilan sunset on a particularly fine evening in 15 BBY, they kissed.

At that very moment, back on Yavin 4, the Council had just read its decision: Mothma was acquitted of all charges, and her role as head of the Council would be reinstated immediately. Moreover, in recognition of their valor at Virujansi and vital importance to the Rebellion, the pilots would be given their first seat on the Council - and that seat would be filled by Antoc himself.

From the moment they returned to Yavin, Antoc and Mothma were inseparable. Their relationship was a secret from the other Rebels - well, from everyone except Bail Organa, who had not, in fact, been born yesterday. They would still argue, of course - but the tenor of their arguments was very different than it had been. Over the years to come, they were constant companions - particularly on Mothma's trips to Alderaan, when she would visit and mentor the child Leia Organa. And in 8 BBY, in a secret ceremony at the entrance to the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster on Yavin 4, Mothma and Antoc were married by their friend, Bail Organa. Their marriage remained a secret until the fateful day that Antoc was killed in the skies above Scarif. Mothma went on to serve as Chancellor of the Rebel Alliance and senior member of Alliance High Command during the Battles of Yavin and Endor, through the creation of the New Republic and the end of the Galactic Civil War. Mothma never married again, and she mourned Antoc until 28 ABY, when, at the age of seventy-four, she died peacefully and painlessly, in her sleep, of natural causes.

And the rest, as they say, is history.


End file.
